Statistics

To be more specific, I study how these investors http://jeducai.mywapblog.com/forex-dollar-surges-to-five-year-high-vs.xhtml generate such huge and consistent profits in the stock markets -- year-in and year-out." CLICK HERE to get your Free E-Book, The Little Black Book Of Billionaires Secrets As you can see from the chart above, Portugese unemployment is still quite high at 15.6%, but it is headed in the right direction. There were 47,000 fewer unemployed people in the third quarter than in the second. Portugal has a population of 10.5 million people. The GDP annual growth rate is negative, but it, too, is beginning to move in the right direction. Portugal is forecast to grow GDP by over 2% in 2014 and more than 5% in 2015. Consumer spending and consumer confidence are both turning higher. Retail sales showed positive growth for the first time since 2011. More: continuehttp://etfdailynews.com/2013/12/20/portugal-is-turning-the-corner-and-things-are-getting-better/2/

6 Drown, 1 Survivor as Boat Capsizes off Portugal

The Constitutional Court rejected late Thursday a government plan to cut state pensions above 600 euros ($820) a month by 10 percent next year, saying it violated the principle of trust in the authorities. The measure aimed to save 388 million euros. It was the fourth time this year the court has blocked austerity measures to reduce government spending. Portugal got a 78 billion euro bailout in 2011 and in return agreed to slash spending. Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said Friday his government is examining alternatives and didn't rule out new taxes. However, he acknowledged that would hurt Portugal's fragile economic growth. More: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/portugal-scrambles-find-spending-cuts-21286778

Portugal court nixes public-pension cuts

That summary could describe the state of play in Illinois or Detroit , where battles over pensions are playing out in front of rapt and anxious audiences. But a similar plot line leaped forward today in Portugal, where the nations highest court has struck down a proposal to cut retirement benefits for public employees. ( Patricia Kowsmann of the Wall Street Journal has the full story here.) Reuters Portugals president, foiled on pensions. Portugal, of course, is one of the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain), the countries hit hardest in the European debt crisis. The nation got a $107 billion bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in 2011, and the government of President Anibal Cavaco Silva is trying to demonstrate to creditors that it has put its financial house in order. According to Kowsmann, the government had proposed a 10% cut in pensions for retired civil servants whose monthly stipend topped 600, or about $820. (Six hundred euros a month is roughly half the average salary in Portugal, according to the OECD.) The cuts would have saved the government about $530 million a year. More: http://blogs.marketwatch.com/encore/2013/12/19/portugal-court-nixes-public-pension-cuts/

The sole survivor, a 37-year-old man, swam to the beach on Costa de Caparica, 15 kilometers (9 miles) west of Lisbon, to alert authorities late Saturday, according to maritime police deputy chief Pacheco Antunes. The man was then taken to a nearby hospital. Antunes said Sunday that investigators examining the boat, a fiberglass recreational boat equipped for fishing, have found a large hole in its hull. A week ago, six students drowned on a beach not far from where the boat capsized. More: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/drown-survivor-boat-capsizes-off-portugal-21303720

Portugal confirm Campinas at 2014 World Cup team base

Paulo Bentos side will be based in the city of Campinas in Sao Paolo state The mid-sized city is close to an airport but they may have to train on other pitches nearby, because of privacy issues trading at the stadium. Ponte Pretas ground is surrounded by high rises and the Portuguese Football Federation has reportedly asked for the stadium to be covered, to avoid training sessions being watched by prying eyes. Stadium administrator Elias da Silva said: We know that the World Cup is a war, no? So if Portugal are going to practice, they want, like I say, somewhere more hidden. Here with the buildings around its difficult because the press can find a place to film those key practices. More: http://www.ghanasoccernet.com/portugal-confirm-campinas-at-2014-world-cup-team-base/

clicking here Visitors can enjoy the light festival either on foot, or on a dedicated canal tour. Housed within the elegant former headquarters of Dutch shipping line the Koninkijke Hollandsche Lloyd, artotel amsterdam boasts its very own light festival: Europes largest permanent interactive art installation, a curtain of projected video art work created for the venue by Dutch innovations studio Present Plus. artotel amsterdam demonstrates a bold meeting of historic architecture with a dramatic, modern interiors boasting 120 unique art works by the hotels signature artist Atelier Van Lieshout throughout the public areas and bedrooms. Also within the hotel is new arts and dining venue 5&33 , an all-day and late night kitchen, bar, library, lounge and 300 m public art gallery which operates a rotating cultural programme of events and exhibitions. The 5&33 kitchen is overseen by Chefs Daniele Pampagnin and Mattia Pedroni, formerly of Soho House Group. Boasting 107 rooms, including four Masterpiece Suites, artotel amsterdam guests all enjoy complimentary a la carte breakfast, Elemis Spa room amenities and homemade mini bar treats. Getting There:easyJet flies direct daily official site from London to Amsterdam Schiphol. More: http://www.loughboroughecho.net/lifestyle/travel/holidays-amsterdam-light-festival-6399421

Amsterdam still 4 million short after error

There are twelve reported cases, where people returned the contribution, only to have it transferred from their account again as a recovery payment. This way that paid the amount back twice. The City is taking steps to correct the problem. Written by Audrey Graanoogst Audrey Graanoogst, writer Audrey recently started writing articles and maintains a blog about farm life and pets from the comfort of her home in Suriname. Native to Suriname, Audrey spent part of her life in Groningen, the Netherlands and in Texas. More: http://www.nltimes.nl/2013/12/24/amsterdam-still-4-million-short-error/

W Amsterdam Will Be An Upside Down Hotel With Rooftop Restaurant & Bar

We want to know which of links these four candidates has the best chance to beat the Blue Streaks, in your opinion. Alex Danielson, Zach Zwijacz and Trey Wall each won a pair of events to lead Saratoga Springs past Guilderville 96-75 in Friday's boys swim meet in Saratoga. See It Loading... Sports Director Doug Sherman Doug Sherman has been Sports Director at CBS6 since 1997, & has been part of the station's sports team since 1995... Find out more about sports director Doug Sherman Weekend Sports Kelly O'Donnell Kelly O'Donnell joined the CBS 6 Sports Team in November 2008. He can be seen at the anchor desk on weekends... More: http://www.cbs6albany.com/sports/features/sports/stories/amsterdam-at-cba-1496.shtml

Take a trip to the Amsterdam Light Festival

The citys Canal District is turning 400 this year, and the city is celebrating by selling bottles of water obtained from the canal. Its an unusual souvenir but hey, at least it lets you take an actual piece (or rather, several hundred milliliters) of the attraction with you, complete with sediment.The water is bottled asAmsterdam Canal Aqua and has the background story of the waterway printed on the back of its label. Its obviously not potable, so dont drink it if you know whats good for you. Each bottle ofAmsterdam Canal Aqua is priced at50 (~$69 USD.) More: http://technabob.com/blog/2013/12/20/amsterdam-bottled-canal-water/

Alcoholics in Amsterdam being paid with beer to clean streets

The address is not Raadhuisstraat 2, but rather Spuistraat 175, the street that runs along the back of the building. The Albert Heijn (an upscale grocery store a la Whole Foods) and Gall & Gall (a wine & spirits shop) you see on the ground floor in the above shot will remain. Based on the description on the architects website , this will mean that all public spaces of the hotel, including reception, restaurant, and bar, will be on the top floor of the hotel. Read on for more about the buildings history and future as a W. Joseph Crouwel originally designed the former Government Office for Transactions and Telephony in 1925, with the design influenced by Frank Lloyd Wrights Larkin Administration Building in Buffalo (NY). The back of the Royal Palace of Amsterdam ( Paleis op de Dam ) is visible in the above shot, with Dam Square just on the other side. The classic building to the right with the two spires (see below) is the former post office, now a shopping mall. More: http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2013/12/23/8438/6056/hotels/W_Amsterdam_Will_Be_An_Upside_Down_Hotel_With_Rooftop_Restaurant_%26_Bar

Girl (13) arrested carrying 100g of cocaine

Photographer: Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg First published: Tue, Dec 24, 2013, 01:00 Police and social workers in the Netherlands will spend Christmas Eve trying to trace the family of a 13-year-old girl found carrying up to 100g of cocaine in her body cavities when she was arrested amid throngs of holiday passengers arriving at Amsterdams Schiphol Airport. The girl the youngest person ever arrested for attempted drug smuggling at Schiphol and perhaps at any European airport is being held in custody alone after an 18-year-old youth accompanying her was found to be carrying nothing illegal and was released after questioning. The two teenagers are understood to have arrived in Amsterdam on board a flight from the former Dutch colony of Curacao, a Caribbean island off the coast of Venezuela a route that has become notorious in recent years as the Netherlands cocaine highway. Very shocked We see a lot of this but we are very, very shocked at the age of this little girl, said Robert van Kapel, a spokesman for the Marechaussee, the military police unit which runs security at Schiphol and despite whom around 20,000kg of cocaine is smuggled through the airport every year. Although soft drugs are legal in the Netherlands if they are bought and consumed in licensed coffee shops, cocaine is illegal. Imported from the Caribbean, it fetches at least 75,000 a kilo on the street. As a result, smugglers will risk almost anything and business is booming. More: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/girl-13-arrested-carrying-100g-of-cocaine-1.1636913

Amsterdam takes third at Montgomery County Duals

Alcoholics in Amsterdam being paid with beer to clean streets Along with beer, participants also receive a hot meal, a small stipend, and a pack of tobacco for their work. By Thu, Nov 21 2013 at 11:43 AM Related Topics: Photo: Shutterstock Alcoholics need alcohol, streets need to be cleaned; with those two facts in mind, the Dutch capital of Amsterdam has decided to pay alcoholics with beer to help keep the streets tidy. Searching for a way to quell the disturbances that some alcoholics were causing in one of the city parks, the plan was hatched by the Rainbow Foundation project, which is funded by the state and donations. "This group of chronic alcoholics was causing a nuisance in Amsterdam's Oosterpark : fights, noise, disagreeable comments to women," Gerrie Holterman, head of the Rainbow Foundation project, told http://elsiereidh.skyrock.com/3198728773-There-Are-Hundreds-Of-Search-Engines-And-Web-Directories-On-The.html AFP. The aim is to keep them occupied, to get them doing something so they no longer cause trouble at the park. The men start the day with two beers, work until lunch, are fed a warm meal with two more beers, continue working, and are then off the clock with another beer, 10 euros (approximately $13) and a half-pack of rolling tobacco. More: http://www.mnn.com/money/green-workplace/stories/alcoholics-in-amsterdam-being-paid-with-beer-to-clean-streets

A severe winter storm has caused major travel problems in Britain, leading to substantial delays Tuesday at London Gatwick Airport and on roads and rail lines at the height of the Christmas travel period. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)The Associated Press Next Slide Previous Slide LONDON A severe winter storm caused major travel problems in parts of http://www.savingsdaily.com/post/kim-kardashian-makes-fans-dream-come-true-as-she-invites-her-to-watch-kanye-west-yeezus-concert-with-her-338 western Europe Tuesday, stranding passengers travelling for Christmas at Paris and London airports and leaving tens of thousands of homes without power. The storm caused four deaths in Britain, including a man who jumped into a fast-flowing river to try and rescue his dog. The severe weather also left a 12-year-old boy crushed to death beneath construction materials in Normandy, France. In Britain, thousands of people trying to get away for the holidays were affected by reduced or cancelled train services due to landslides and fallen trees and flooded roads, Flight delays were triggered by power outages at London Gatwick Airport's North Terminal. The airport, the country's second-largest, said it was investigating the cause of the outage, but said it was weather related. Across the English Channel, nearly all long-haul flights out of Paris' Charles de more Gaulle Airport were delayed because of the storm, according to the Paris airport authority website. More: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/12/24/severe-winter-storm-kills-5-delays-christmas-travel-for-thousands-in-britain/

Israel strikes Gaza after civilian is shot by sniper Ruth Eglash The response, with an air, tank and infantry assault on the Palestinian enclave, killed at least two people. In Britain, thousands of people trying to get away for the holidays were affected by reduced or cancelled train services due to landslides and fallen trees and flooded roads. Power outages at London Gatwick Airports North Terminal caused 26 cancellations and many more delays. The airport, the countrys second-largest, said the problems were caused by flooding from a nearby river triggered by heavy rains. Across the English Channel, nearly all long-haul flights out of Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport were delayed because of the storm, according to the Paris airport authority website. Electricity provider ERDF said the winds left nearly 200,000 homes in western France without electricity. Frances Interior Ministry says the 12-year-old boy was killed at a construction site in Saint Germain de Tallevande and another person was seriously injured. More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/winter-storm-delays-flights-kills-5-in-uk-france/2013/12/24/695d010a-6cb4-11e3-a5d0-6f31cd74f760_story.html

France’s Search for Women Fit for the Panthéon

In 2007, under President Jacques Chirac, the French held a large ceremony to inaugurate a plaque for over twenty-six hundred French citizens recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous among the Nations for having risked their lives to help Jews during the Second World War. Hundreds of them are women; few are famous anywhere. It is not easy to define what heroic behavior or a heroic person is today, Belaval admits. The idea of greatness is changing. The Internet users we consulted mostly seem less enthusiastic about military exploits, diplomatic or political successes, and more attached to civic, intellectual and humanitarian engagement. There is also a tendency today to consider collective and not merely grand individual achievements. The French sociologist Emile Durkheim wrote, in 1883, There are two types of men: the great and the small. Since then, as the French historian Mona Ozouf wrote, we have become less certain of great men bearing great lessons. And yet it seems almost certain that the Pantheon tradition of individual honors will continue, perhaps precisely because national identification with values of the Republic is weaker and more uncertain. Studies of public opinion show that the Pantheon is insufficiently known to younger people and less well-off people, Belaval writes. More: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/12/frances-search-for-women-fit-for-the-pantheon.html

France worries about jihadists returning from Syria

France had added the two countries to its blacklist in August in a move paving the way for penalty taxes as it tries to crack down on tax evasion. "As of today, Bermuda and Jersey have satisfied all of France's requests for information, which will enable them to avoid reprisals contained in the law," the ministry said in a statement on its website. France set up a blacklist of countries it considers to be opaque and uncooperative in tax matters, which are subject to sanctions in the form of additional taxes on all capital flowing to and from France. The blacklist will be updated next year after Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici and Budget Minister Bernard Cazeneuve wrote to the relevant committees of the French lower and upper houses of parliament signalling progress by the two countries. Governments worldwide are attempting to fight tax evasion and plug holes in their national coffers in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. More: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/12/23/uk-hold-hold-france-tax-jersey-bermuda-idUKBRE9BM0RG20131223

France to remove Jersey, Bermuda from tax-haven blacklist

As citizens, they have a right to return home because, unlike the United States, France does not bar its people from joining the groups. "About 600 French nationals are fighting jihad around the world, and Syria is one of the poles of attraction for them," says Guillaume Atchouel, a French journalist who covers radical groups in France. In August, a young Frenchman named Jean Daniel was killed in Syria while fighting http://www.nexopia.com/users/carsonmaiy/blog/17-kanye-west-breaks-weekold-vow-of-silence-on-obama-hes-trying-to-be-cool alongside the rebels with his brother Nicholas. "My sons were good kids, but they were brainwashed," said their father, Gerard, of the two young men, who converted to radical Islam before joining the rebellion in Syria. In a video released in July, the two brothers armed with Kalashnikovs had asked French President Franiois Hollande to convert to Islam to save his soul from "the fire of hell." In September, Abu Muhammad al-Fransi, a French convert to Islam, was killed in battle while fighting with the Islamic organization of Ahrar al-Sham. A month later, in October, a French national going by the nom de guerre of Abou al-Qaaqaa conducted a suicide operation in Al-Hamam, a village southeast of the city of Aleppo, reported the Syrian Observatory for Human moved here Rights. The man was believed to be a member of the al-Nusra Front, a rebel faction listed as a terror organization by the United States. More: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/12/21/france-jihadists-syria/4108193/